On Nutrition and the Never Ending Path Story

It's been brought to my attention that people apparently still read my blog, even with my spectacular lack of entries. And taking into account that today is a holiday (thank you religious grenadian people) I have a smidgen of 'free time' (in quotations since there is no such actual entity in my sphere of existence anymore). So I thought I'd type about the latest one credit wonder, Medical Nutrition. We had our final on monday, which already feels like a small universe ago so if I don't type about it now it'll be regulated to 'that thing that happened after micro that made be get up early'.

So, just a bit about the class in general. As I mentioned it's the next in line of one credit wonders. After micro finished *angels sing* they replaced it with two solid weeks of nutrition. We had two classes mon-friday from 8-10. There were two lecturers for the class, both were guest speakers from the UK. I was pleasantly surprised by both speakers, especially Dr. Grimble. I'm not sure if it was the are of Britain that he was from but the man was spot on for the narrators of the Nova documentaries. I just kept expected him to break out into "....and then the female lion leaps out of the brush towards the hapless zebra who has caught her eye as...." and so forth. Accent aside, he was a wonderful speaker who had obviously spent his entire life researching the field. I'm a sucker for a good research paper and so really enjoyed that much of the data he presented was from his own projects.

As expected much of the class was common sense (hmm, eat more fruits and vegetables? ya think?) but it was nice to have it all laid out in a more scientific manner than what the media and GNC try to feed us. Supplements? Totally not necessary except, obviously, in situations were you have an actual deficiency or are pregnant/trying to be pregnant (take folic acid! It can't hurt and can do serious amounts of good). I'd always held this particular belief (that supplements are universally pretty much a bunch of crap) and it was a relief that my medical education agreed with my assessment. Here's the thing people. Because of some stupid ruling some years ago the FDA does NOT have jurisdiction over anything considered a 'supplement' so the companies that make said pills/powers/elixirs etc. are essentially on their honor to do the proper research and then present their products accordingly. Hmm. Who here thinks these profit driving totally unaccountable companies are trustworthy? Let's see a raise of hands. No one? I thought not. Also, if you look carefully at the concentrations of 'active' ingredient in many of these supplements and do the math there isn't even a significant amount to have any effect on you! You might as well eat dirt. Actually, the dirt might be better, what with all the trace minerals and such.
Ok, perhaps that was a tad of an exaggeration but I think I've belaboured my point enough.

Ok, what people want to know about. The test! It was very straightforward and pretty much directly from the note packets we were give. Make sure you know the meaning of all the graphs - it will come up. It's also a good reason to go class, so you can get the explanations. Granted, the graphs are not exactly rocket science but it does shave time off your studying to have them explained (and they really aren't in the the text of the handouts).

So, that was nutrition. Good bye, we hardly knew ya and will probably not think about you ever again - unless I need to step up on my supplement soap box again ;)

Also. Path. Need study more. Go now. >_>